Humanism is not an ideology or a doctrine, but aspirations and values about human life, roughly comprising three questions:

1. how do we live with ourselves? this is about happiness and wisdom

2. how do we live with each other? concerns about peace and justice

3. how shall we grow? these are concerns about personal growth and more recently about science and technology

Humanism is diverse. You don’t have to be an atheist to be a humanist, though many are. Many memorable religious teachers have been ‘humanist’ in that they preached about how to achieve happiness, how to treat other people well, and how to build the good society here and now, rather than about the right sacrifices or the right beliefs or coming rewards. But what humanists have in common that we know we’re all we’ve got; nobody will come down from heaven to clean up our mess. It’s up to us.

“Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity”